The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) tried to obtain location data, activity logs, and other information from Google to identify a Canadian who criticized the Trump administration and ICE online. The ministry even used a 1930 customs law to push the process forward.
The United States continues its pursuit of data on its opponents, sometimes even crossing the Canadian border. The DHS attempted to get location and activity data from Google targeting a Canadian citizen, after he criticized the Trump administration and ICE online.
According to his lawyers, the man hasn’t set foot in the United States for over ten years, raising legal concerns. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) denounces the circumvention of administrative procedures, allowing the government to access data it couldn’t obtain directly in this context.
The request was made through a “customs summons,” a tool normally used for investigations on imports and customs duties, not for monitoring individuals. Google even notified the individual in this context, despite a non-disclosure agreement.
A law from the 1930s used?
The citation to appear, attached to the complaint, does not specify the reasons for the investigation and only mentions the 1930 tariff law. According to his lawyers quoted by Wired, the man neither imported nor exported anything to the United States between September 2025 and February 2026, the period covered by the data request.
They believe this procedure might have been triggered in response to his online posts, where he criticized immigration forces after the murders committed by two agents last January.
Ars Technica specifies that, in the context of strengthened immigration controls under the Trump administration, the DHS has used numerous customs summons and other administrative citations to identify users criticizing the agency or monitoring its agents.
In March, after a complaint from an anonymous Reddit user, the authorities withdrew a summons for his data and replaced it with a citation to appear before a grand jury. An approach that could lead to a trial much more quickly.
[Context: The DHS sought data from Google to identify a Canadian who criticized the Trump administration online. The ACLU raised concerns about legal implications.]
[Fact Check: The authorities used a customs law from the 1930s to obtain the data, which sparked criticism and legal questions.]
